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Friday, March 14, 2014

Sepia Saturday: College Freshman

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt highlights beautiful
architectural elements such as domes and arches. When my grandaunts Violetta and Velma Davis
attended Harrisonburg Teachers College in the early 1920s, the signature Bluestone
and Roman/Greek revival architecture had been the hallmark of the school for
ten years.

These were the first two buildings, built in 1909 as they looked in the 1920s.
Maury (center) was the first academics and administrative building.
Jackson Hall (right) was the first dorm and dining hall.

Twenty-five years later the 6 buildings Violetta and Velma
knew had grown to 13, with the arches and columns providing architectural
coherence.

Violetta and Velma made great alumnae assuring that my
mother would attend their alma mater too, which had been renamed Madison College. (Today it is known as James Madison University. Go Dukes!)

Throughout my childhood, every visit to Harrisonburg to
see the aunts included a ride through the campus. Certainly it must have been part of my
parents’ secret plot to brainwash me into following in the footsteps of my
mother and grandaunts. My dad would
always say, “You’ll go there one day.”
It always sounded more like an order than a shared dream. But that was ok. It became my dream too.

I went through the motions of sending my SAT scores to
several colleges, just in case Madison didn’t want me. But as
luck and the Davis women would have it, come September 1969, my parents proudly
moved me to Madison College. My high
school friend Pat and I elected to room together – a little added security in
having SOMEONE familiar close by. Our
dorm was a small dorm, all freshmen women.
There were no co-ed dorms then.

Johnston Hall

Johnston doesn’t possess the best example of the arches,
but those staircases on the ends are handsome.
Those stairs were used mainly as emergency exits during fire drills,
which were a test of our nerves. They were
always scheduled in the middle of the night. When the resident assistant (aka “R A”) banged
the bell with her hammer, we were to grab a raincoat and flashlight and quickly
head for the exits. Then we stood
shivering in the cold until given the all-clear to return to our beds.

Johnston Hall as it appeared 1969

That’s my room, third set of windows from the left on the
top floor. Each room had two bunkable
twin beds, 2 desks and chairs, 2 dressers, 2 bookcases, 2 sizeable closets, and
1 sink. There was a large shared
bathroom with enclosed stalls and private showers. While students who lived in suites dorms felt
sorry for us, I liked this arrangement because we didn’t have to clean the
bathroom. Housekeeping did it.

Pat’s and my room was painted a sickly pinky-brown. That is, until the pipes froze. Pat and I returned from class one afternoon
to find her side of the room soaking wet with water running down the wall. We reported the problem and soon we heard those
much-awaited voices calling, “Man on the hall.”
That was the polite way for men to enter women’s dorms back then. They assessed the situation and left. Pat and I were on our own to deal with wet
bedding. And no heat. We stayed in the room one night freezing to
death. The next night friends at the end
of the hall pushed their beds together and the four of us piled in
together.

Wendy and Pat loosened wet and damaged plaster
using broom handles.

It was miserable. Fortunately
heat was restored quickly although new plaster and paint came much later. The good news was the pinky-brown was
replaced with a fresh sky blue.

Aside from that miserable incident, living in a freshman
dorm was a great deal of fun. We made
friends quickly with the girls living around us. There was a beauty queen, a girl legally
blind, girls from New York and Pennsylvania and Maryland, Celeste Holm’s pen
pal, and LOTS of phys ed majors. When our
friend Nancy made the field hockey team as a FRESHMAN, we saw it as a time to
celebrate an amazing accomplishment and honor.
How? We hung her underwear all
over the place.

Nancy - one proud field hockey player!

She thought the pair taped to her wall was funny.

She didn’t think it was funny when she found her panties
on poles around campus. It’s a wonder
she didn’t beat us all with a hockey stick.
(Granted, we would have deserved it.)

Judging by my photos from that first dorm experience, we
must have been in one continuous silly contest.

Pat and Eileen -- onesies and pigtails

Pat and Eileen both had “onesie” pjs. Don’t ask me why. I suppose they thought toddler-style pajamas
added just the right amount of quirkiness to nightwear.

In moments of boredom, what could be more fun than
letting a floor fan blow up your nightgown?

Pat, Nancy, and Eileen

Harrisonburg was not the vibrant college town it is
today. Saturdays were LONG with little
to do. We were glad for that playground
across the street at the Anthony Seeger campus school (used for training
elementary school teachers).

Nancy's head and Pat's feet

This was our idea of superior creativity. Yeah boy, we were destined to be Madison’s
shining stars, for sure.

My husband and I try to be good alumni, but we couldn’t
convince our own daughters to even LOOK at our alma mater. I wonder if viewing all that beautiful
Bluestone and Greek Revival architecture would have made a difference.

For more stories of architectural features, please visit Sepia Saturday.

17 comments:

If this is a duplicate, please delete. I went looking for how to spell "segue" the verb, correctly...anyway my comment before said something like: Nice segue from arches to college to freshman fun. Thanks for a most enjoyable post, you certainly must have fond memories and you've kept the pictures you took, showing all of us what fun it is to be young and somewhat carefree.

What fun you must have had, and especially what fun you, yourself, must have been in college. Everyone needs to be unabashedly silly once in a while - and not just when you're young, either! Loved your post!

This reminded me quite a lot of my own college days (1970-74). I didn’t have a room to myself for two years either, but whata luxury it felt, even though it was not en suite (as they all seem to be these days). It did have a little wash basin though. An enjoyable post.

The tradition of an American university campus emulating the classic universities of Europe - Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Sorbonne, is no longer fashionable. Perhaps because colleges have new monumental architecture like football stadiums and sports arenas.

I lived at home while going to college but do remember "man in the hall!" from visiting my sister at Howard University. I didn't take any college photos either. We just didn't take cameras around all the time back then and not living there, I guess.

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net